The letter that follows was apparently written in the earlier days of Alcoholics Anonymous. It is reproduced exactly as I found it–with one exception. I removed three words that do not change the message one iota but were offensive to me. The author is unknown.

It brought tears to my eyes because I’ve also known the struggle of alcoholism. However, my tears are not of hopelessness but of gratitude. Finally a solution.

WHY I GO TO MEETINGS

We died of pneumonia in furnished rooms where they found us three days later when somebody complained about the smell.

We died against bridge abutments and nobody knew if it was suicide and we probably didn’t know either except in the sense that it was always suicide.

We died in hospitals, our stomachs huge, distended and there was nothing they could do.

We died in cells, never knowing whether we were guilty or not. We went to priests, they gave us pledges, they told us to pray, they told us to go and sin no more, but go. We tried and we died.

We died of overdoses, we died in bed (but usually not the Big Bed).We died in straitjackets, in the DT’s seeing God knows what, creeping, skittering, slithering, shuffling things. And you know what the worst thing was? The worst thing was that nobody ever believed how hard we tried.

We went to doctors and they gave us stuff to take that would make us sick when we drank on the principle of “so crazy, it just might work,” I guess, or maybe they just shook their heads and sent us to places like Dropkick Murphy’s.

And when we got out we were hooked on paraldehyde or maybe we lied to the doctors and they told us not to drink so much, just drink like me. And we tried, and we died.

We drowned in our own vomit or choked on it, our broken jaws wired shut.

We died playing Russian roulette and people thought we’d lost, but we knew better. We died under the hoofs of horses, under the wheels of vehicles, under the knives and boot heels of our brother drunks. We died in shame.

And you know what was even worse was that we couldn’t believe it ourselves, that we had tried. We figured we just thought we tried and we died believing that we hadn’t tried, believing that we didn’t know what it meant to try.

When we were desperate enough or hopeful or deluded or embattled enough to go for help, we went to people with letters after their names and prayed that they might have read the right books, that had the right words in them, never suspecting the terrifying truth, that the right words, as simple as they were, had not been written yet.

We died falling off girders on high buildings, because of course ironworkers drink, of course they do. We died with a shotgun in our mouth, or jumping off a bridge, and everybody knew it was suicide.

We died under the Southeast Expressway, with our hands tied behind us and a bullet in the back of our head, because this time the people that we disappointed were the wrong people.

We died in convulsions, or of “insult to the brain,” we died incontinent, and in disgrace, abandoned.

If we were women, we died degraded, because women have so much more to live up to. We tried and we died and nobody cried.

And the very worst thing was that for every one of us that died, there were another hundred of us, or another thousand, who wished that we could die, who went to sleep praying we would not have to wake up because what we were enduring was intolerable and we knew in our hearts it wasn’t ever gonna change.

One day in a hospital room in New York City, one of us had what the books call a transforming spiritual experience, and he said to himself “I’ve got it” (no, you haven’t, you’ve only got part of it) “and I have to share it.” (now you’ve ALMOST got it) and he kept trying to give it away, but we couldn’t hear it. We tried and we died.

We died of one last cigarette, the comfort of its glowing in the dark. We passed out and the bed caught fire. They said we suffocated before our body burned, they said we never felt a thing, that was the best way maybe that we died, except sometimes we took our family with us.

And the man in New York was so sure he had it, he tried to love us into sobriety, but that didn’t work either, love confuses drunks and he tried and we still died.

One after another we got his hopes up and we broke his heart, because that’s what we do. And the worst thing was that every time we thought we knew what the worst thing was something happened that was worse. Until a day came in a hotel lobby and it wasn’t in Rome, or Jerusalem, or Mecca or even Dublin, or South Boston, it was in Akron, Ohio…

A day came when the man said I have to find a drunk because I need him as much as he needs me (NOW you’ve got it). And the transmission line, after all those years, was open, the transmission line was open. And now we don’t go to priests, and we don’t go to doctors and people with letters after their names.

We come to people who have been there, we come to each other. And we try. And we don’t have to die.

In 1943, theologian Reinhold Niebuhr wrote the Serenity Prayer for a church sermon. This prayer, an appeal for grace, courage and wisdom, has become closely associated with AA, often recited at meetings all over the world. Adopted in the late 1940’s by AA, it remains a favorite prayer for Alcoholics Anonymous, Al-Anon and other 12-step groups.

Interestingly, the prayer was changed from “give us grace ” to “grant me the serenity”.

Niebuhr’s daughter, Elisabeth Sifton, wrote the book, “The Serenity Prayer”, which explores the circumstances that led her father to write the prayer. The book can be found many places online. I ran across this audio interview of Ms. Sifton on the NPR website a few years ago and have included a link to it here: NPR Audio Interview

Lasting about 20 minutes, I hope you set aside time to find out more about this humble man.

God, give us grace to accept with
Serenity the things that
Cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things which
Should be changed, and the
Wisdom to distinguish the one
From the other.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a
Pathway to peace.
Taking, as Jesus did,
this sinful world as it is, not as
I would have it. Trusting that
You will make all things right If
I surrender to Your will, So that
I may be reasonably happy
In this life, and supremely happy
With You forever in the next.
Amen.

Once upon a time there was an Enormous Thumb belonging to a woman with an Alcoholic Husband and Three Teenaged Children.

The four of them lived under her thumb, so of course they couldn’t do much growing up. Often their spirits writhed under the weight; every time they tried to get out from under, they’d do something wrong and the thumb would clamp down on them again.

Father managed by keeping himself flattened out drunk most of the time; he was so cute about escaping to a bottle that, no matter how much mama watched, she couldn’t catch him at it until he’d drunk himself into unconsciousness. Everyone thought she was a Very Nice Lady, and they were sorry she was having such a hard time with her family.

There was really no reason for her to come to Al-Anon to solve her problems because she always knew just what to do about everything. But she did want to make her husband stop drinking, so she thought she’d try it. She was quite unhappy at first because some of the members were not inclined to Pull any Punches. She was quite indignant when they tried to show her what she was doing to her family, but to everyone’s amazement, the Thumb began to shrink and lose weight, and things looked brighter.

More and more she realized what she was doing and, being a Determined Character, she applied the program every day and her other problems took care of themselves very nicely.

The AA Promises are found in the chapter titled “Into Action” of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. There is no formal “The Promises” that the writers of the book have laid out for us; they come from the sentence that reads “Are these extravagant promises?.”

Acknowledging that, the “promises” are a type of “gauge” recovering alcoholics often use to take the pulse of our progress. Alcoholics (and even the people we surround ourselves with) live much of our lives watching others to see how we’re supposed to act. Not that we decided to actually “do it right”, we just often compare ourselves to others and judge ourselves, often very severely, by what “they” are doing or not doing. Ah, the elusive “they”.

I’d like to take a look at those Promises here.

“We will be amazed before we are halfway through.” — Now, some don’t put this in the “promises”, but I do. Why? Hope. Plain and simple. We can give ourselves permission to hope again. And not after years and years but “before we are halfway through”. I needed that.

“We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.” — Talk about paradox. Many an alcoholic chased what we thought would bring us happiness but ended up imprisoned by our desires. Recovery brought us the discovery that we were doing it backwards. And just in case you’re one of them that says they’ve “tried it and it doesn’t work”, just trust me: you won’t recognize it at first. It’s new. And this one comes after only just a little bit of recovery.

“We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.” — Ok. This one takes a little more time and a LOT more work. Yes, I won’t sugar-coat recovery. There are things we must do in order to get what we’ve never had. Our past is what fueled much of our continued drinking. And the more we drank, the more “past” we had to forget. The 12 steps are designed to get us through this.

We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace.” — Serenity? Peace? Alcoholics and their families only know one word: CHAOS. You may be familiar with the old story about the frog swimming in a pot of water. As the water slowly comes to a boil, the frog doesn’t jump out because he adapts to the small changes in temperature. And he cooks to death. The tragedy lies in the familiar. We’ve lived in chaos so long that it seems normal to us. It doesn’t have to be that way.

“No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away.” — The last thing an active alcoholic is interested in is anybody else. Not that we have no feelings for others. After all, we have relationships, we marry, care about our children. But the drink is our lover. We think about it, plan around it, nurture it, won’t go anywhere it won’t be but if we have to, we’ll drink before we go. We “go to any lengths” to keep it in our lives. When taken altogether, that’s a lot to turn around. When taken a day at a time, it can be and has been done no matter how much we’ve messed up. You might even want to start a blog so others can benefit!

“Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us.” — Ever been afraid of the mailbox? The telephone? No? So as an active drinker, you look forward to getting your bills? How about legal notices or calls from their lawyer? What about facing your family, friends, co-workers? It’s easy to outrun bill collectors, but not quite as easy to outrun the hurt/angry/disappointed/tired looks from your family. This can all change. I repeat. This can all change. It is possible. It happened to me.

“We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.” — Now this is funny! ME? EVERYTHING baffles me! And I only knew of one way to handle it…run the other way! That was MY intuition! The people I’d surrounded myself with LIKED to take care of things for me. They must because they’d let me know I couldn’t possibly be able to take care of myself by always getting me out of scrapes. And when that last person finally walked away, I found this promise and held on tight. Today it’s a reality.

“We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.” — I’d always felt God was too busy for me. He knew what I was doing but since I was pretty much useless, I never felt He had time for me. But when I finally got to the end of myself, God was there to bring me along. I heard in meetings not to give up before the miracle happens. I think this is what they were talking about.

“Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us-sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them.”

Don’t quit. Hang in there. Place one foot in front of the other. Put your energy into today and don’t borrow tomorrow’s trouble. Pray because God is listening. Surround yourself with healthy-thinking people. Get involved in helping others even when you don’t feel like it. Call someone who knows what you’re going through. And then do it again and again.

Turns out, they can say it because they’re right.

Click here to buy this framed laser print

Part One: IS IT OK TO BELIEVE AA’s 12-STEP PROMISES?I’ve been reflecting lately about the AA Promises. They are found in the chapter titled “Into Action” of theBig Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. There is no formal “The Promises” that the writers of the book have laid outfor us; they come from the sentence that reads “Are these extravagent promises? We think not.” The “promises”are a type of “gauge” recovering alcoholics often use to take the pulse of our progress. Alcoholics (and eventhe people we surround themselves with) live much of our lives watching others to see how we’re supposed to

act. Not that we decided to actually “do it right”, we just often compare ourselves to others and judge

ourselves, often very severely, by what “they” are doing or not doing. Ah, the elusive “they”.

Now, let’s take a look at them.

1. “We will be amazed before we are halfway through.”
Now, some don’t put this in the “promises”, but I do. Why? Hope. Plain and simple. We can give ourselves

permission to hope again. And not after years and years but “before we are halfway through”. I needed that.

2. “We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.”
Talk about paradox. Many an alcoholic chased what we thought would bring us happiness but ended up imprisoned

by our desires. Recovery brought us the discovery that we were doing it backwards. And just in case you’re one

of them that says they’ve “tried it and it doesn’t work”, just trust me: you won’t recognize it at first. It’s

new. And this one comes after only just a little bit of recovery.

3. “We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.”
Ok. This one takes a little more time and a LOT more work. Yes, I won’t sugar-coat recovery. There are things

we must do in order to get what we’ve never had. Our past is what fueled much of our continued drinking. And

the more we drank, the more “past” we had to forget. The 12 steps are designed to get us through this. Trust

me.

4. “We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace.”
Serenity? Peace? Alcoholics and their families only know one word: CHAOS. You may be familiar with the old

story about the frog swimming in a pot of water. As the water slowly comes to a boil, the frog doesn’t jump out

because he adapts to the small changes in temperature. And he cooks to death. The tragedy lies in the familiar.

We’ve lived in chaos so long that it seems normal to us. It doesn’t have to be that way.

5. “No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in

our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away.”
The last thing an active alcoholic is interested in is anybody else. Not that we have no feelings for others.

After all, we have relationships, we marry, care about our children. But the drink is our lover. We think about

it, plan around it, nurture it, won’t go anywhere it won’t be but if we have to, we’ll drink before we go. We

“go to any lengths” to keep it in our lives. When taken altogether, that’s a lot to turn around. When taken a

day at a time, it can be and has been done no matter how much we’ve messed up. You might even want to start a

blog so others can benefit!

6. “Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave

us.”
Ever been afraid of the mailbox? The telephone? No? So as an active drinker, you look forward to getting your

bills? How about legal notices or calls from their lawyer? What about facing your family, friends, co-workers?

It’s easy to outrun bill collectors, but not quite as easy to outrun the hurt/angry/disappointed/tired looks

from your family. This can all change. I repeat. This can all change. It is possible. It happened to me.

7. “We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.”
Now this is funny! ME? EVERYTHING baffles me! And I only knew of one way to handle it…run the other way! That

was MY intuition! The people I’d surrounded myself with LIKED to take care of things for me. They must because

they’d let me know I couldn’t possibly be able to take care of myself by always getting me out of scrapes. And

when that last person finally walked away, I found this promise and held on tight. Today it’s a reality.

8. “We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.”
I’d always felt God was too busy for me. He knew what I was doing but since I was pretty much useless, I never

felt He had time for me. But when I finally got to the end of myself, God was there to bring me along. I heard

in meetings not to give up before the miracle happens. I think this is what they were talking about.

“Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us-sometimes quickly, sometimes

slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them.”

Don’t quit. Hang in there. Place one foot in front of the other. Put your energy into today and don’t borrow

tomorrow’s trouble. Pray because God is listening. Surround yourself with healthy-thinking people. Get

involved in helping others even when you don’t feel like it. Call someone who knows what you’re going through.

A woman comes home from another 10-hour workday and finds her husband asleep in bed. She knows why. It’s always the same reason — he has a bad back. He says it’s getting worse so he has to take pain pills. She DOES know that he is in pain–it’s obvious. But it sure seems like he’s not trying very hard to get better. More

“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

All over the world, AA and Al-Anon meetings are being held on the topic of Step One (even alcoholics like structure!). The first month of the year = the First Step: “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol–that our lives had become unmanageable”.